System and method for comparing documents

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a system and a method for comparing information contained on at least two documents belonging to an entity. The present invention includes at least one device configured to receive information from at least one first document and at least one second document; then, compare at least one first document information and at least one second document information; and determine whether at least one second document contains at least one first document information. The present invention then outputs a result of whether the at least one second document contains at least one first document information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/256,260, filed Apr. 18, 2014, entitled “SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR COMPARING DOCUMENTS” which is a continuation applicationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/011,512, filed Aug. 27, 2013, nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,705,807, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPARINGDOCUMENTS”, which is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/411,117, filed Mar. 2, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No.8,520,957, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPARING DOCUMENTS”, whichis a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/944,615, filed Nov. 11, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,139,869, entitled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPARING DOCUMENTS”, which is a continuationapplication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/984,703, filed Nov.9, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,860,318, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORCOMPARING DOCUMENTS”, all of the contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally relates to an identification system fordocuments. More particularly, the present invention relates to a systemand method for comparing information on at least two documents. Suchcomparison may be performed to verify an entity's identity.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

The problem of rampant and readily available fake identificationdocuments, more particularly, driver licenses and other identificationdocuments, has caused many retailers fines, sometimes imprisonment, lossof tobacco and liquor licenses, and has even subjected them to otherforms of civil and criminal liability. Over the course of years, variousattempts have been made to prevent or detect the use of fakeidentification documents, but not with a great deal of success. To helpprevent the use of fake identification documents, motor vehicleauthorities have been working on and refining a comprehensive frameworkof minimum requirements with recommendations to enhance and improve thesecurity and uniformity of driver license documents in North America.These new driver licenses and other identification documents haveembedded coded, or even encrypted coded information, with machinereadable formats that conform to various standards.

The use of driver licenses has expanded over the years to serve asidentification for various applications, such as for the purchase ofalcohol, tobacco or lottery products, as well as for gambling incasinos, off-track betting (OTB), movie theaters and user-definableevents, such as allowing the ingress into liquor establishments. All ofthese fields have an age requirement for the purchase of a product atthe point-of-transaction or for ingress into an establishment and thedriver license is the document used to provide age identification andall age verification is commonly accomplished in a relatively quickmanner.

To prevent use of false identifications, sometimes two forms ofidentification are used to verify a person's identity. Such situationstypically occur in government applications that require multiple formsof identification before the issuance of a government credential or ID.Upon a visual examination, the documents (e.g., a passport and adriver's license) may look identical. However, the information encodedon the documents may be different. Similarly, a cashier during a saletransaction may request a person's driver's license to verify someinformation on a credit card, which is used to pay for a purchase. Othersituations may involve use of government and non-governmentidentification cards in various identity verification scenarios. Thus,there is a need for a system and a method that will compare informationencoded on documents in order to verify contents of the documentsagainst each other and, hence, to verify an entity's identity.

SUMMARY

The present invention relates to a system and a method for comparinginformation contained on at least two documents belonging to an entity.The present invention includes at least one device configured to receiveinformation from at least one first document and at least one seconddocument; then, compare at least one first document information and atleast one second document information; and determine whether at leastone second document contains at least one first document information.

In an alternative embodiment, the present invention is a method forcomparing documents on a device. The method includes steps of receivinginformation from at least one first document and at least one seconddocument; comparing the information from the at least one first documentto the information from the at least one second document; anddetermining whether the at least one second document contains the atleast one first document information.

In yet another embodiment, the present invention is a method forcomparing information contained on an entity's identification documents.The method includes steps of extracting information contained on theentity's identification documents; comparing information extracted fromthe entity's identification documents; and determining if at least oneextracted information is contained on all entity's identificationdocuments.

Further features and advantages of the invention, as well as structureand operation of various embodiments of the invention, are disclosed indetail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical orfunctionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most digit(s) of areference number identifies the drawing in which the reference numberfirst appears.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary method of comparing documents on aterminal device, according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates another exemplary method of comparing documents on aterminal device, according to the present invention.

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary apparatus for comparing documents on aterminal device, according to the present invention.

FIG. 3B illustrates another exemplary apparatus for comparing documentson a terminal device, according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an output screen illustrating a plurality of identificationdocuments' information fields, according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an output screen illustrating a comparison between selecteddocuments' information fields, according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is another output screen illustrating a comparison betweenselected documents' information fields, according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 7 is yet another output screen illustrating a comparison betweenselected documents' information fields, according to the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a system and a method for comparingdocuments within a computer terminal. In an embodiment, the presentinvention reads information from a first document. The information canbe read using a card reader, a magnetic reader; a bar code reader, ascanner or any other reader capable of obtaining information from thedocument. Once read, the present invention extracts the information intocertain document fields. In this embodiment, the fields are first name,last name, middle initial, date of birth, social security number, driverlicense number, address, state of issuance of the document, date ofissuance of the document, etc. As can be understood by one havingordinary skill in the relevant art, the fields and a number of them arenot limited to the ones defined above.

The present invention then reads the second document in a similarfashion. The second document may belong to the same entity, whichpresented the first document. However, the second document is differentfrom the first document. For example, the first document is a driverlicense and the second document is a passport. In another example, thefirst document is a credit card and the second document is a governmentissued identification card.

The present invention also extracts information obtained from the seconddocument in a similar fashion as it does with the first document. Then,the present invention determines which first document fields and whichsecond document fields contain identical or substantially identicalinformation or type of information. For example, a first document fieldhaving “name of entity” and a second document also having the “name ofentity” are compared. Similarly, other document fields can be compared.If any or all document fields in the documents contain similarinformation, then the present invention indicates a “match” signal. Ifnot, then the present invention issues a “no match” signal. In analternate embodiment, the present invention determines whether thedocuments contain information that is also contained on the otherdocument. For example, a first document's name field contains the sameinformation as is contained in a second document's name field (such as,“John Doe” is contained in the first document's name field and “JohnDoe” is also contained in the second document's name field).

Embodiments of the present invention are described with respect to FIGS.1-7. FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention's method100 for comparing documents on a terminal device. The method 100 isperformed by a system 300 shown in FIGS. 3a and 3 b.

Referring to FIG. 3a , system 300 includes a document reader device 302coupled to a terminal 310 via a connection 320. The terminal 310 furtherincludes a display 312, processor 314 and a memory 316. The documentreader device 302 can be a single device capable of retrievinginformation from a document. In an alternate embodiment, the documentreader device 302 can be a collection of devices that retrieveinformation from documents. The document reader device 302 can be a barcode reader, a magnetic stripe reader, a smart card reader, a scanner, alaser reading device, a RFID device, an optical scanner or any otherdevice capable of retrieving information contained on a document.Further, in an embodiment, a single document reader device 302 canretrieve information from various types of documents (e.g., a driver'slicense and a passport). In an alternate embodiment, separate documentreader devices 302 can be used for retrieving information from differenttypes of documents. The document can be a driver license, a credit card,a passport, a visa document, a green card, a government issuedidentification card, a non-government issued identification card, amilitary identification card, or any other document containinginformation, whether or not in a coded form. As can be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the relevant art, the present invention is notlimited to document reading devices as well as the types of documentsdescribed above.

Further, the connection 320 can be an electrical, electromechanical,wireless, or any other connection suitable for transferring informationfrom the document reader device 302 to the terminal 310. The documentreader device 302 can also be part of the terminal 310.

In an embodiment, the terminal 310's display 312 serves to displayinformation relating to a read document. Some of the outputs of thedisplay 312 are shown in FIGS. 4-7 and described below. The processor314 processes information obtained from the read document. In anembodiment, the processor 314 performs method steps described in FIGS.1-2 below. The processor 314 can further be coupled to the display 312and the memory 316. After processing information received from thedocument reader device 302, the processor 314 can store the informationin the memory 316, as well as, cause the display 312 to display theprocessed information. The memory 316 can be terminal's 310 permanentmemory, random access memory, read only memory, or other type of storagedevice capable of either permanently, temporarily, or permanently andtemporarily store information. The content of memory 316 can be alteredby adding, deleting, or changing the stored information in any otherway. The stored content can be recalled by the processor 314 andoutputted on the display 312, upon request or otherwise. In an alternateembodiment, the content of the memory 316 can be password-protected.

In an alternate embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3b , the terminal 310 canbe coupled to a plurality of document reader devices N (where N is aninteger) 302 via connections 320. The document reader devices 302 can bea plurality of devices such as those referred to above. Similarly, eachdocument reader device 302 out of the plurality of document readerdevices can be designed to retrieve information from multiple types ofdocuments. Alternatively, each document reader devices can retrieveinformation only from a specified type of document.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary embodiment of the method 100 forcomparing information contained on at least two documents begins withsteps 102 and 104. The two steps can be performed simultaneously or oneafter the other. In step 102, the document reader device 302 reads theinformation from a first document. In step 104, the document readerdevice 302 reads information from a second document. For example, thefirst document can be a person's driver license, which containsinformation about person's first name, last name (or a combination offirst and last names, as well as any middle initials, suffixes, andother name designations), address, date of birth, issuing jurisdiction,eye color, hair color, and other pertinent information identifying theindividual.

The second document can be a person's passport. For example, a U.S.passport includes a Machine Readable Zone (“MRZ”) in its laminatedportion. The passport's MRZ typically encodes the person's first name,last name (or a combination of first and last names), date of birth,country of origin, and other relevant information. Optical CharacterRecognition (“OCR”) is used to retrieve information from the passport.In an embodiment, the document reader device 302 can be designed toretrieve information from a passport's MRZ using OCR.

The driver license and the passport can be passed through the documentreader device 302 to gather information. In an embodiment, a singledocument reader device 302 can be designed to be able to retrieveinformation from the passport and the driver license, as well as othertypes of documents. In an alternate embodiment, separate document readerdevices 302 can be used to retrieve information from different types ofdocuments. By passing the documents through the document reader device302, the information contained on the documents is detected and read bythe device 302. In an embodiment, the device 302 can read the documentssimultaneously. In other words, the documents can be passed through thedevice 302 at the same time (assuming the device 302 includes more thanone reader). In an alternate embodiment, the documents can be read oneafter the other. In this case, the documents can be passed throughdifferent readers corresponding to different types of documents orthrough a single reader designed to read multiple types of documents.

The processing then proceeds to step 106. In step 106, the method 100compares the information received from the first document to theinformation obtained from the second document. In the above example, theinformation obtained from a driver license is compared to theinformation obtained from an individual's passport. In an embodiment,the system 300 can compare the person's first name, last name (or acombination of first and last names), and date of birth as obtained fromthe driver's license and the passport. Other present invention's systemsare capable of comparing an individual's middle initial/name and/orgender in addition to and/or in combination with the above information.In alternate embodiments, the documents can contain various otherinformation that cannot be easily compared. For example, if the driverlicense is compared to a credit card, the credit card's number cannot becompared to any information contained of the driver license. However,the documents typically will contain person's first and last names (or acombination of first and last names), as well as his or her date ofbirth. As can be understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevantart, the present invention is not limited to comparison of the person'sfirst name, last name (or a combination of the first and last names),and date of birth as stored by the documents. Other embodiments of thepresent invention include comparison of information relating to person'saddress, gender, hair color, eye color, social security number, andother information. Further, depending on the type of document and typeof information stored on the document's readable medium (e.g., magneticstripe, bar code, etc.), appropriate comparisons can be made by thesystem 300 using method 100.

In step 108, the system 300 determines if any of the informationobtained from the first document is identical or substantially identicalto the information obtained from the second document. In the example ofthe driver's license and the passport, the system 300 would determine ifthe person's first name obtained from the driver's license is identicalor substantially identical to the person's first name obtained from thepassport. In an embodiment, the system 300 is designed to read andcompare a combination of the individual's first name, last name, middleinitial, and/or any other information (e.g., gender) on the firstdocument (e.g., driver's license) to a combination of the individual'sfirst name, last name, middle initial, and/or any other information onthe second document (e.g., passport).

Similar comparisons can be made for the person's last name and data ofbirth. The processor 314 is designed to read information from documentscoded in various formats. For example, if the person's date of birth isstored as 10/01/1946 on the driver license and the same date of birth isstored on the person's passport as 01/10/46 (assuming the date is placedfirst and month placed second), the system 300 would read it as October1, 1946. Likewise, the system 300 is capable of reading otherinformation in a similar fashion.

Additionally, the system 300 can be set up so that it is able to do apartial match of the person's names. For example, if the first documenthas “Charles” as the person's first name and the second document has“Chuck” as the person's first name, the system can determine that thetwo documents contain identical information or that the documentscontain each other's information in respective fields. However, foradded security such comparison may be insufficient. Hence, someadditional information is needed to verify person's identity based onthe two documents. In embodiments requiring greater security,information obtained from the first document must be identical to theinformation obtained from the second document. That is, if the person'sfirst name, last name, and date of birth are used to compare thedocuments, then all three must be respectively identical on bothdocuments.

In an embodiment, in step 110, the system 300 can provide an outputshowing whether the information obtained from the first document isidentical or substantially identical information obtained from thesecond document. For example, a “Match” is displayed on display 312, ifthe information used to compare the two documents is identical for bothdocuments. Alternatively, the system 300 displays “Match” on the display312, if it determines that the documents contain each other's respectiveinformation. A “No Match” is displayed on display 312, if theinformation is not identical. Further, if the system 300 determines thatthe documents does not contain information that can be compared, itdisplays an error signal. As can be understood by one having ordinaryskill in the relevant art, other indicators can be used to determinewhether the information is identical or not. In an embodiment, theindicators can include sounds, LED indicators, and other ways todetermine how the information on the documents compare.

FIG. 2 illustrates another exemplary method 200 for comparinginformation on at least two documents, according to the presentinvention. Method 200 can also be performed by the system 300 shown inFIGS. 3a and 3b . Method 200 begins with steps 202 and 204. In steps 202and 204, the system 300 reads information from the first and seconddocuments, respectively. These steps are similar to steps 102 and 104,described above with respect to FIG. 1.

After steps 202 and 204, the processing proceeds to steps 206 and 208,respectively. In step 206, the system 300 extracts information from thefirst document. In an embodiment, the system 300 extracts person's firstname, last name (or a combination of first and last names), and date ofbirth. In an alternate embodiment, the system 300 can extract otherinformation that identifies the person.

Similarly, in step 208, the system 300 extracts information from thesecond document. As with the first document, the system 300 extractsperson's first name, last name (or a combination of the first and lastnames), and date of birth. If other information is used to compare thedocuments, then system 300 extracts the appropriate information.

In an embodiment, the system 300 extracts document information intodocument fields. For example, the person's first name extracted from thefirst document is stored in a first document's first name field; theperson's last name extracted from the first document is stored in afirst document's last name field; and so on. The process is similar forthe second document, which includes second document fields. Exemplaryfields are shown in FIGS. 4-7. In an embodiment, the system 300 can readthe following fields: first name, last name (or a name, i.e., acombination of first and last names), document number, issuer'sinformation, expiration date, address, hair color, gender, eye color,weight, and others. Depending on the document type, certain informationmay or may not be extracted. This is because the information is eithercontained on the document or not. As can be seen from FIGS. 4-7, anindividual driver's license contains information fields different froman individual's financial document, such as a credit card. Similarsituation exists with respect to an individual's passport (FIG. 5) ormilitary identification card (FIG. 6) or a benefit card (FIG. 7). As canbe understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art, otherdocuments can include various other information fields that identify theindividual. The extracted information can be stored in memory 316. Asstated above, the content of the memory 316 can be accessed later on.

The processing then proceeds to step 210. In step 210, the system 300determines whether there are any common information fields between twodocuments. For example, if an individual's driver's license and passportare compared, then the system 300 determines that the first name, thelast name, and the date of birth information fields are common to bothdocuments. In an embodiment, a combination of the individual's first andlast names can be compared. As stated above, other parameters, such asan individual's middle initial, gender, or other information can be usedto compare the two documents in addition to or in combination with theabove information. In another example, if an individual's driver licenseis compared to a credit card, then the two documents have common nameinformation fields.

If the system 300 determines that the documents have at least one commoninformation field or field type, e.g. the first and second documentscontain first name, last name (or a combination of first and lastnames), and date of birth information fields, then the processingproceeds to step 212. Also, as stated above, in an embodiment, theindividual's other parameters (e.g., middle initial, gender, etc.) canbe compared along with the above information. In step 212, the system300 compares the information in the common information fields. Then, instep 214, the system 300 determines whether the information contained inthe common information fields of both documents is identical orsubstantially identical. If greater security is required, then theinformation must be identical. For example, if name field is common toboth documents, the data contained in this field for both documents mustbe identical (i.e., if John Doe is contained in the first document'sname field, then John Doe must be contained in the second document'sname field, in order for the information to be identical). The system300 performs this determination based on the comparison done in step212. If the fields in the first and second documents contain identicalor substantially identical information, then the system 300 can issue asignal indicating that the documents contain such information inrespective document fields. For example, the system 300 can issue a“Match” signal if the documents have identical or substantiallyidentical information in respective document fields. As stated above,depending on the desired level of security, the system can issue a“Match” signal even if the documents contain information that ispartially identical. In an embodiment, this signal can be displayed onthe screen 312, as shown in step 218.

However, if the document's common document fields do not have identicalor substantially identical information, then the system 300 issues analert. The alert indicates the documents do not have any identical orsubstantially identical information in the respective common documentfields. In an embodiment, the alert can be a “No Match” signal displayedon the screen 312.

In an event, that there are no common document information fields in thedocuments, the system 300 issues an error signal indicating that thereis no match or that there are no common information fields. This isshown in step 216 of method 200.

The system 300 is capable of performing exemplary methods 100 and 200for multiple documents at the same time or sequentially. As can beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art, the aboveare exemplary embodiments that do not limit the scope of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 4-7 illustrate comparisons between various documents, which system300 performed.

FIG. 4 illustrates a screen output 400 showing a Master Card credit cardbeing scanned in by the system 300. The system 300 indicates that thecredit card is a financial document, shows its number, expiration date,whether it expired, and the name of the bearer. Because no otherdocument is scanned, in the status window, the system 300 indicates thatanother document needs to be scanned before a comparison can beperformed. Hence, one of the document columns in FIG. 4 is left blank.

FIG. 5 illustrates another screen output 500 showing a driver's licenseand a passport of an individual being compared by system 300. The leftcolumn of the screen output 500 indicates data obtained from thedriver's license. This data was extracted into various document fields,such as: name, date of birth, address, city, document number, issuedate, etc. The right column of the screen output 500 indicates data readfrom that individual's passport. Likewise, the data was extracted intovarious document fields, such as: name, document number, date of birth,expiration date, etc. Both columns also indicate types of documents. Inthis example, the system 300 determined that the information in the“NAME” and “DATE OF BIRTH” fields was identical on both documents.Hence, the system issued a match signal, as indicated in the statuswindow of the screen output 500. As can be understood by one havingordinary skill in the relevant art, other types of information (e.g.,gender, address, etc.) can be used to compare the above documents. In anembodiment, the data obtained the individual's driver's license isdisplayed in the left column, whereas other documents are displayed inthe right columns.

Further, each column on the screen output has a designation type, e.g.,the left column is entitled “Driver's License/ID Cards Data” and theright column is entitled “Travel/Financial Document Data.” However, ascan be understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art, thepresent invention is not limited to these designations. Further, as canbe understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art, thesystem in the present invention is not limited to displaying informationretrieved from specific documents in either left or right columns. Forexample, the “Driver's License/ID Cards Data” can be placed in eitherright or left columns. Similar situation exists with respect to othertypes of documents' information.

Also, the status window may include textual and other types ofindicators characterized by color, sound alert, flashing banner, textsize and/or font, as well as other ways to indicate whether documentsinclude identical or substantially identical information. For example,if the documents contain identical or substantially identicalinformation, system 300 can display the word “MATCH” in green color aswell as italicizing and bolding the word. If the system 300 determinesthat the documents do not include identical or substantially identicalinformation, it can display an indicator in red, as well as, sound analert.

FIG. 6 illustrates another screen output 600 produced by the system 300after comparing two documents. In this example, the system 300 comparedan individual's driver's license and Department of Defense document.Here, no identical or substantially identical information was found,even though common document fields existed (such as name and date ofbirth fields). Hence, the system 300 displayed a “NO MATCH” signal inits status window.

FIG. 7 illustrates yet another screen output 700 produced by the system300 after comparing a benefit card and a credit card. In this example,no common identification fields that contain information were found. Thebenefit card, shown in the left column, contains four fields: issuingjurisdiction designation, card number, expiration date, and whether thecard expired or not. The credit card, shown in the right column,contains five fields: issuing entity, card's number, expiration date,whether the card expired or not, and bearer's name. Because system 300did not find any common document fields in the documents, it displayedan error signal indicating that there were no fields to compare. Asstated above, such signal can be displayed in various colors, text sizeand/or font, and others. If desired, the error can be accompanied by asound.

Further, as seen from FIGS. 4-7, the system 300 is capable of comparingentity's identification characteristics (i.e., name, date of birth,address, etc.) as well as comparing identifying biometric parameters.The biometric parameters may include entity's picture, gender,fingerprints, DNA information, blood type, eye color, hair color,weight, height, etc.

Example embodiments of the methods and components of the presentinvention have been described herein. As noted elsewhere, these exampleembodiments have been described for illustrative purposes only, and arenot limiting. Other embodiments are possible and are covered by theinvention. Such embodiments will be apparent to persons skilled in therelevant art(s) based on the teachings contained herein. Thus, thebreadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by anyof the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined onlyin accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

We claim:
 1. A system for comparing documents, the system comprising: adocument reader for reading information from a first physical documentand information from a second physical document associated with anindividual; a memory storing computer executable instructions that, whenexecuted by a processor, generate a component that: accesses theinformation read from the first document and the information read fromthe second document to extract information fields from the first andsecond documents; identifies common information fields between the firstand second documents, wherein each common information field contains aparameter characterizing the individual; identifies differentinformation fields that are found in either the first document or thesecond document, but are not found in both the first and seconddocuments; compares the information from the common information fieldsin the first document with the information from the common informationfields in the second document to determine if the information isidentical or substantially identical; generates a display depicting acomparison of the information fields from the first document and thesecond document, wherein: the display is bifurcated to depictinformation fields from the first document in a first portion andinformation fields from the second document in a second portion; thecommon information fields from the first and second documents arepresented adjacent one another on the display; the different informationfields from the first document are not presented adjacent to thedifferent information fields from the second document on the display;and a visual indication is provided of whether the common informationfields in the first document and the second document are identical orsubstantially identical.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the commoninformation fields include an information field containing a date ofbirth, and wherein comparing the information from the common informationfields includes identifying a first format of the date of birth in thefirst document and a second format of the date of birth in the seconddocument.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the common informationfields include an information field containing a name, and whereincomparing the information from the common information fields includesverifying whether the name in the first document and the name in thesecond document represent an identical name.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein: the visual indication includes a positive indication that thefirst document matches the second document in an event that eachparameter of the identified common information fields in the firstdocument is identical or substantially identical to a correspondingparameter of the identified common information fields in the seconddocument; the visual indication includes a negative indication that thefirst document does not match the second document in an event that oneparameter of the identified common information fields in the firstdocument is not identical or not substantially identical to acorresponding parameter of the identified common information fields inthe second document.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the positiveindication corresponds to a first displayed color, and wherein thenegative indication corresponds to a second displayed color.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the visual indication indicates that thefirst physical document and the second physical document do not have afield in common when no common information fields between the first andsecond documents are identified.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein thedocument reader is selected from a group consisting of: a card reader, amagnetic stripe reader, a bar code reader, a scanner, a laser readingdevice, a RFID device, or an optical scanner.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein the information read from the first document is obtained from animage of the first physical document or the information read from thesecond document is obtained from an image of the second physicaldocument.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the parameter characterizingthe individual is a biometric parameter, and wherein the biometricparameter is selected from a group consisting of: the person's picture,gender, fingerprints, DNA information, blood type, eye color, haircolor, weight, or height.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the firstphysical document and the second physical document are selected from agroup consisting of: a driver's license, a passport, a credit card, abenefit card, a military identification, a government issuedidentification, a non-government issued identification, or a bank card.11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded withcomputer-executable instructions to cause a processor to execute amethod for comparing documents, the method comprising: receivinginformation obtained by a document reader from a first physical documentand information obtained by the document reader from a second physicaldocument associated with an individual; accessing the informationreceived from the first document and the information received from thesecond document to extract a first set of information fields from thefirst document and a second set of information fields from the seconddocument; identifying common information fields between the first andsecond documents, wherein each common information field containsinformation characterizing the individual; identifying differentinformation fields that are found in either the first document or thesecond document, but are not found in both the first and seconddocuments; comparing the information from the common information fieldsin the first document with the information from the common informationfields in the second document to determine if the information isidentical or substantially identical; generating a user interface todepict a comparison of the information fields from the first documentand the second document, the user interface comprising: a first set ofinformation fields in a first portion of the user interface; a secondset of information fields in a second portion of the user interfaceadjacent to the first portion; wherein each of the identified commoninformation fields in the first set of information fields is positionedadjacent to a corresponding one of the identified common informationfields in the second set of information fields; and wherein each of theidentified different information fields in the first set of informationfields is not positioned adjacent to the identified differentinformation fields in the second set of information fields; andgenerating a visual indication indicating whether the common informationfields in the first document and the second document are identical orsubstantially identical.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein the common information fieldsinclude an information field containing a date of birth, and whereincomparing the information from the common information fields includesidentifying a first format of the date of birth in the first documentand a second format of the date of birth in the second document.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein thecommon information fields include an information field containing aname, and wherein comparing the information from the common informationfields includes verifying whether the name in the first document and thename in the second document represent an identical name.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein thevisual indication includes: a positive indication that the firstphysical document matches the second physical document in an event thatinformation in the identified common information fields in the firstdocument is identical or substantially identical to correspondinginformation in the identified common information fields in the seconddocument; and a negative indication that the first physical documentdoes not match the second physical document in an event that informationin the identified common information fields in the first document is notidentical or not substantially identical to corresponding information inthe identified common information fields in the second document.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein thepositive indication further comprises a first sound alert and thenegative indication further comprises a second sound alert.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the methodfurther comprising generating an error indication when the firstphysical document and the second physical document do not have a fieldin common.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 11, wherein the first physical document and the second physicaldocument are selected from a group consisting of: a driver's license, apassport, a credit card, a benefit card, a military identification, agovernment issued identification, a non-government issuedidentification, or a bank card.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein the document reader is selected froma group consisting of: a card reader, a magnetic stripe reader, a barcode reader, a scanner, a laser reading device, a RFID device, or anoptical scanner.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 11, wherein the information received from the first document isobtained from an image of the first physical document or an image of thesecond document.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 11, wherein the information characterizing the individual is abiometric parameter, and wherein the biometric parameter is selectedfrom a group consisting of: the person's picture, gender, fingerprints,DNA information, blood type, eye color, hair color, weight, and height.21. A method for determining whether a first physical document and asecond physical document identify an individual, the method performed bya computing system including a processor and a memory, the methodcomprising: receiving information obtained by one or more documentreaders from a first physical document and a second physical documentassociated with the individual; accessing the information obtained fromthe first document and the information obtained from the second documentto extract information fields from the first and second documents;identifying common information fields between the first and seconddocuments, wherein each common information field contains informationcharacterizing the individual; identifying different information fieldsthat are found in either the first document or the second document, butare not found in both the first and second documents; comparing theinformation from the common information fields in the first documentwith the information from the common information fields in the seconddocument to determine if the information is identical or substantiallyidentical; generating a display depicting a comparison of theinformation fields from the first document and the second document,wherein: the display depicts information fields from the first documentin a first portion and information fields from the second document in asecond portion; the common information fields from the first and seconddocuments are presented adjacent one another on the display; thedifferent information fields from the first document are not presentedadjacent to the different information fields from the second document onthe display; and a visual indication is provided of whether the commoninformation fields in the first document and the second document areidentical or substantially identical.
 22. The method of claim 21,wherein the common information fields include an information fieldcontaining a date of birth and the method further comprises identifyinga first format of the date of birth in the first document and a secondformat of the date of birth in the second document.
 23. The method ofclaim 21, wherein the common information fields include an informationfiled containing a name, and the method further comprises identifying afirst format of the name in the first document and a second format ofthe name in the second document.
 24. The method of claim 21, wherein thevisual indication includes: a positive indication that the firstphysical document matches the second physical document in an event thatinformation in the identified common information fields in the firstdocument is identical or substantially identical to a correspondinginformation in the identified common information fields in the seconddocument; and a negative indication that the first physical documentdoes not match the second physical document in an event that informationin the identified common information fields in the first document is notidentical or not substantially identical to information in theidentified common information fields in the second document.
 25. Themethod of claim 21, wherein the first physical document and the secondphysical document are selected from a group consisting of: a driver'slicense, a passport, a credit card, a benefit card, a militaryidentification, a government issued identification, a non-governmentissued identification, or a bank card.
 26. The method of claim 21,further comprising selecting the document reader from a group consistingof: a card reader, a magnetic stripe reader, a bar code reader, ascanner, a laser reading device, a RFID device, or an optical scanner.27. The method of claim 21, wherein the information obtained from thefirst document is from an image of the first physical document or theinformation obtained from the second document is from an image of thesecond physical document.
 28. The method of claim 21, wherein theinformation characterizing the individual is a biometric parameter, andwherein the biometric parameter is selected from a group consisting of:the person's picture, gender, fingerprints, DNA information, blood type,eye color, hair color, weight, or height.